Friday, October 1, 2010

SO YOU WANT TO MAKE BENTO LIKE A PRO!

Yes! It’s time for the first ever installment of:

SO YOU WANT TO MAKE BENTO LIKE A PRO!

This week’s episode –

BENTO 101

So, you might be asking “What is this crazy bento business anyway?” Good question, citizen! Bento is a thing that we’re going to make. Let’s make some bento! Since this is the first time I’ve done a tutorial, we’re going to start off pretty easy.

Now, since this is a very basic bento lesson – we’re just going to focus on putting all of the ingredients in the box. Fancier boxes have themes and motifs and all that, but today it’s just the basics. Making a box that contains the perfect blend of proteins, starches…and oh man, deer, I can’t keep focusing if you’re going to be that adorable!

I get it already! You’re the cutest ever. Good for you.

Okay, so let’s get to work! So for the protein portion, I decided to make eggs!

What a great day to be an egg!

OH NO! WAIT! I was wrong! It’s a terrible day to be an egg!

You can make your egg happy or sad depending on your mood – I used carrot strips and edamame to make my egg look indignant.

For starch, I used rice. But rice is booooring, right? So I used a star mold. If you don’t have a rice mold, you can use cookie cutters or shape by hand.

Once the rice is out of the mold, it’s time to see how it will fit in the box.

Not bad…but not great…it looks like they don’t get along, better solve that problem.

A wall made out of mango and melon! Best idea ever, but now they look uncomfortable…

A bed of edamame and carrot! Yes! But…we can do more, right?

Let’s add a little furikake for color! And a treat!

You guys ready to go? Don’t be so nervous, egg!

That’s better!

There we go, a simple bento that anyone can make. If you like this tutorial let me know and I’ll try to do some more.

20 comments:

Totally! You can put chocolate in anything. Well, not everything, but a friend told me one time that you can improve all food by adding either chocolate or garlic. (if chocolate won't make it taste better, garlic will. Or the other way around.) I think that's pretty true. Anyway - you can put whatever you want in your bento!

i love your star rice molds too! and i'd enjoy reading another tutorial. i'm not sure what i'd put in my bento, but once i had a piano teacher that told me "i believe onions and garlic will make anything taste better!" ... does this mean that since garlic gets two votes, it ultimately tastes best? :)

My favourite thing in a bento would probably be katsu sando - had that a couple of times in Japan and loved it. (Would love to learn how to make that.) I really like cherry tomatoes, so those would go in any bento I'd pack. And maybe some kitkat. And I think renkon chips would be awesome. Never actually had them, but they sound yummy!

Thanks for the tutorial, Yumi! I bought my own bento box in NYC's Chinatown (it was just TOO cute to resist) but have yet to put anything so bento-y in it. (unless PB&J counts ;)) I will definitely try this out!